I'm Dreaming of a White... Thanksgiving

It's still a little too early to be singing Christmas songs.. but ummm, there's about eight inches of snow on the ground right now and it has my holiday senses tingling. I really don't understand why there is no thanksgiving songs... I mean, yeah what the heck would we sing about.. pilgrims? Seems good enough.
Alright so anyways, today I woke up healthy and happy!! Well, I'm always happy honestly, just happier than normal today. The flu has run it's course and I'm back on track. Meaning, running around the house like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to clean and get ready for thanksgiving. (actually it should be turkey with it's head cut off... get it?)
I'm also writing like a mad woman. The words are just spinning around in my brain, screaming at me to come out. So, I've been a slave to all those words, writing them down and hammering out chords and what not on the piano.
All my songs come from experience, and then sometimes I exaggerate and make it sound like I had the worlds worst heart break, when in reality I ended up okay in the end. Just a couple of days ago I got to see someone I hadn't seen in a while and I missed him so much it's not even funny. We talked for what seemed too short of a time, but what time we had was so worth it. He makes me happy, and that's just fine. So guess what y'all... I wrote a song about it! It's pretty cool. I like it. I'll be posting it on youtube pretty soon so in the meantime, go on youtube and subscribe to my channel so you can be one of the first people to know when it's posted! woohoo!!
Let's see, so today I went to lunch with one of my best friends and I was really excited about that! I haven't seen her since I left for Nashville and that's a long time. We ate and talked and ate, and then talked while eating and ate while talking. If you can't tell already, I love eating. It's a favorite activity of mine. I don't love it as much as music, but it's a close second.
Okay so anyways, I received the almost finished product of my EP and let me tell you guys, it's amazing!!!!!! It sounds so incredible.... I couldn't believe my ears. It was insane!!! I loved it! (Thanks David Hall) 
I say "almost finished" because there's still a few more little tweaks to make and then it will be perfect! Then it's a waiting game for you guys as to when I release my music ;)
I can't wait for you all to hear it. I know for sure that it will bring tears to my eyes seeing everyone listening to what we created. It'll be like listening to my diary... which is kind of scary actually.. but I know y'all don't judge. ...right?
Either way it doesn't matter. The emotions really play through each song, I think it's clear how I was feeling when I sang each one. I go from having fun and living it up, to innocence, to hurt and heartbroken, to passionate and indifferent. That's a lot of adjectives, but hey, I have a lot of feelings. My EP is like a wild roller coaster ride, where you go up and down and upside down and side ways and all around, and in the end you're left wondering what the heck just happened. (in a good way of coarse) Gah! I could go on and on and on, but I'll shut up now, I've got to leave something left of a surprise for you.
Now is the time of the blog post where I sit back and thank you all so much for everything. You all are amazing and I'm just so thankful.
Love you all..
God bless

-Madeline

I'm Back!!!!!!

Hey everyone!

So sorry I disappeared for a while......  I was doing some pretty amazing things.

Anyways! These last two weeks I have been in Nashville recording my official, brand new, first EP ever! And what an incredible experience.  I was introduced to so many amazing people and found out so much about myself and my music that I will be forever thankful to have been a part of this. I truly feel I'm changed in a very, very positive way.

So, I'll start from the beginning for you all, and give you snip-its of awesomeness so you can hopefully see into what I accomplished. Recording music is a gift, and when you un-rap the finished product at the end, it's so unbelievably beautiful and rewarding that it's overwhelming. Here's just a peak at my overwhelming gift and what you can expect from me in the very near future!

Day 1: I had a vocal lesson with the incredibly amazing Brett Manning. I had a ridiculous experience, as if I had opened Pandora's box, and magic and crazy awesome things came out of my voice and I hit notes I never knew I could hit. But hey, what did I say about Brett? He's amazing.
Later that day my mom and I dressed up like ninjas for no reason, (seeing as it was Halloween night) and the producer of my EP, David Hall, invited us to the studio to check things out a little before stepping in and doing tracking the next day. So we talked, looked at cool stuff, then took a selfie...

How cute.

 

 

So anyways...

 

Day 2: In the early AM, we stepped into the first day of tracking for all the instruments on the album. I knew from the minute I walked in, the bass player, the electric guitar player, the acoustic guitarist, the drummer, and the pianist, were all a part of this amazing dream and they were all there to help me achieve my goal. There's only one word to explain how I felt; blessed.

I watched my songs come to life and presented in living color and I was completely blown away. (cue the Carrie Underwood song going through your head right now)

Here's just some pictures of some of the instrumentalists and how tired I looked after this insanely long day...

 



This is the drummer, he was awesome.

well, everyone was awesome, this picture just turned out the best.

Here you see me in my natural habitat:

The vocal booth.

Here you see me strikingly disgusting looking and very tired.

 

 

Where did I do all this fabulous recording and stuff you may ask? Well, of course, at the one and only:

BLACKBIRD STUDIOS!!

I put it in all caps because it's really important and I'm afraid if I don't give people and things their proper credit and identification then I might be in trouble, and worse yet, I would feel extremely and terribly bad if I forgot ANYBODY at ALL!

Okay, moving on again... (squirrel)

 

Days 3 through 14 are all a blur and I'm not even going to attempt in trying to mark down what I did each day, seeing as that would end in an utter disaster. So, the day after tracking I stepped into studio C and started laying down smooth vocal tracks. Haha just kidding about the smooth part, I just sang by guts out and put my heart and soul and being and everything I possibly had into the vocals of my songs and gave it everything I possibly could. If you don't hear and experience the emotion when you listen to my songs, then I think you have something seriously wrong with you. (911 please, we have an emergency)

David Hall, the unbelievable and marvelous producer I was so privileged to work with, helped immensely in getting that emotion out of me. He put me in different rooms, he sat me down, he stood me up, he gave me different mic's, he danced, he gave me scenarios, basically he did everything he could to help me. And now, I will share some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

 

Just me taking a selfie with my friend Mic

 

Oh, am I supposed to sing into this thing?

Gotcha

 

This manager, JP, stopped by and gave me amazing advice..

No big deal..

 

Just one of the super cool background vocalists I got to work with, Jason.

P.s. he does a sick Luke Bryan impression, kinda

 

Vocal coach Brett Manning, random girl, producer David Hall

just kidding... that random girl is me.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know this already, Hunter Hayes is one of my
biggest inspirations. He is incredible, aaaaaaaaaaannnndddd I maybe have a crush on him but that's beside the point. Anyways, for inspiration purposes, David printed off a picture of my boy Hunter, except with a photo shopped mustache, and taped it in the room for me to see... to "inspire" me...



 

 

 

Anyways, vocal tracking days were tiring to say the least, but I loved every single second of them. David kept calling me a "race horse" because I just wanted to go, go , go, and hit all the notes and stretch my vocals to new heights and never ever stop. But just like any athlete, I had to take breaks and rest too. Your vocal chords are a muscle too, and just like any other part of your body, they can be overworked, and they need time to recover. After each session of recording I would go home and eat dinner, but I couldn't utter a single word because I was under vocal rest. (no, not vocal arrest.)

Except one night, I sang karaoke....

 

shhhhhh, don't tell David

 

I'm going to skip over details and jump right to the almost end of the story because I can't wait any longer! The best, most truly satisfying moment of all of this, was sitting down and listening to the almost finished product. When I was placed in front of a set of speakers and David began to play the beginning of one of the songs, "Her", I felt chills run up and down my spine and butterflies flying every which way inside of me. The verse played and the chorus orchestrated itself, and when the bridge beautifully echoed through the room, tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn't hold my emotions back. I was left motionless, I couldn't believe this was MY music. The song I was listening to was mine. I heard the story played out in front of me once more and I felt the exact same way I did when I wrote the song. I sat in my chair with my face in my palms and let every tear out that was inside of me. The feeling was indescribable, the feeling of being so blessed, so honored, so thankful, so humbled, all at the same time is incredible.



actual photo evidence I was sobbing:

rare indeed.

 

I offer all of this to God in heaven. He gave me this opportunity and I took it and ran with it. I trusted David to create this music, and what we all came out with was a work of art.
I'm still speechless as I write this blog today. I can't come up with words to type that perfectly describe how I felt and how I feel today..
A never-ending thank you to all you guys for your support.
Speaking of:
I have over 10,000 views on my blog!!!! HOLY MOMMA!!
Thank you all so much for helping me achieve my goals, and making my dreams a reality. I am blessed beyond my own belief and to be able to share this experience with everyone is amazing.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!
I can't say it enough..

Love you all!!

-Madeline